Wednesday, August 19, 2015

10 Factors to Avoid Plateaus and Sustain Improvement

The
other day while visiting a local company regarding continuous improvement the
question of how to sustain improvement and avoid plateaus came up. Thinking
that this is a very common question many wrestle with I thought I would share
my thoughts on the matter.

Since
the mid-1990's many US manufacturers have benefited from implementation of Lean
manufacturing methods. Most of these implementations, however, have plateaued
far below their potentials, producing only modest and sometimes transient
gains, and failing to capture the passion and engagement of true Lean
transformations.

Companies
naturally plateau because they get too happy too soon. The earliest plateau occurs after some
initial stability from attacking low hanging fruit. In actuality if you are
focused on developing people it is all low hanging fruit. These plateaus along
the journey to true north can be counteracted by not only teaching the know-how
but teaching the know-why.

Plateaus
are going to happen and management must anticipate them. They are a temporary place to solidify
concepts and learning. Leaders must take the next step to move past their
comfort zone. It is management kaizen that gets you past plateaus. Companies
who break through realize that employee development leads to business (and
Lean) success.

Simply,
sustainability is about lasting change. Sustainability is discussed often and
one of the great issues in management.
We have all seen facts related to the low rates of sustaining change or
seen news about a company who lost its way. Unfortunately, we see all too often
those companies who finally reach #1 to only lose their way.

Complacency
can and will compromise the performance of your organization. Everyone can
become complacent in their particular environment, and there are different
levels of complacency. At higher management positions, complacency may be more
latent. At the line personnel “trigger pullers” level, however, complacency can
have catastrophic results.

When
it comes to complacency with regard to Lean it is often the result of a “We are
Lean” mindset. This leads to a reduction in awareness/focus and leads to a
false sense of security. For Lean to work effectively, the organization must be
constantly focused on continuous improvement and best practice procedures for
providing value. What sets an effective Lean system apart from simply reducing
waste is ingraining continuous improvement thinking into daily practice. Lean
is not about a destination but rather journey.

Charles
Darwin said "It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most
intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change" which holds
true for culture change.

Below
are ten factors that will help any organization make the change they make
lasting.

Capability – Management must employ
the time and resources necessary for change.

Intention
– Determination and drive for the cause is required. You must insist we make the change and be
determined to keep it up.

Success – People feel happier
and perform better when there is a feeling of success and vice versa. Attitude drives performance so managers must
project confidence.

Hard Work – It is hard to keep
it going. This is entropy. Without it, the system runs down.

Emphasis on the team
not the individual
– In the US we love heroes, but actually teams are more fundamental for
long-term survival. Teams need to be
mentored and developed.

Many small wins, rather
than the occasional big win – Small wins keep up the enthusiasm, and certainly add
up. Management needs to continually recognize
small wins.

Attitude toward failure – Everyone fails from
time to time, but what is crucial is the attitude toward failure: do you punish
or do you treat it as part of learning?

Motivation – Sustainability
requires interest and involvement of all employees. Ask "What gets rewarded around
here? Build a culture to support
improvement.

Discipline – Make it a
habit. Without good disciple the system
will not be maintained. Management must
teach discipline and correct lapses with respect for people as they occur.

Performance measures – It is true you get
what you measure, drive good behavior.
Performance measures need to be aligned with what you want to
achieve. Think long term.

There
is no such thing as self-sustainability, it requires ongoing effort.
Sustainable behavior change is not something that occurs as a result of doing a
30 or 90-day program, nor is it something that you master after doing it for a
year. Change takes a daily commitment to put in the time and energy, knowing
that the return on that investment is great.

Lean
(excellence) is a journey that never ends. There will always be a gap between
where you are (current state) and where you would like to be (True North).
Since there will always be a gap, there will always be an opportunity to
improve. Walking the path on a Lean journey can be an overwhelming experience.

Lean
grew out of years of practice and experimentation at Toyota. No matter how much
better they are than their competition, they continue to find more and more
opportunities to improve each and every year. Lean involves the creation and
implementation of continuous experiments to improve your strategies over time.
This means experimenting with every process every day to get it right. We learn
problem solving through hands-on improvement experiments. In Toyota and in lean
thinking, the idea is to repeat cycles of improvement experiments forever.

A
Lean journey is full of steps not all of which are forward. Failure will occur.
Its ok, the purpose is learning, and we learn through experimentation. Trying
new approaches, exploring new methods and testing new ideas for improving the
various processes is exercise for the mind.

So
leaders must create a culture that puts failure in its proper place: a useful
tool for learning, and a natural part of iterative experimentation. Management
must avoid the temptation to harshly judge unsuccessful ideas. A leader who
allows for experimentation sends a clear signal that personnel are encouraged
to find better methods and products.

Organizations
embarking on a Lean journey should follow a disciplined process of systematic
exploration and controlled experimentation. Kaizen is the process which
determines whether processes resulted in improvements. It refers to an on-going
activity by all people (including managers) to relentlessly and incrementally
change and improve practices in small experiments.

The
road to continual improvement is a rocky one with many ups and downs. Value the
incremental improvement approach to continuous improvement. Through simple,
common-sense, and low cost experimentation a great deal of process improvements
can be made. Experimentation is the exercise of a healthy Lean journey.
Understanding this allows one the opportunity to stay on the path along the
journey.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Search A Lean Journey

Pages

About Me

Tim McMahon is the Founder and Contributor of A Lean Journey Blog. This site is dedicated to sharing lessons and experiences along the Lean Journey in the Quest for True North. The blog also serves as the source for learning and reflection which are critical elements in Lean Thinking.

Tim is a Lean practitioner with nearly 20 years of Lean manufacturing experience. He currently leads continuous improvement efforts for an innovative leader who brings light and data to millions of spaces around the world.

Tim McMahon is a member of ASQ Influential Voices who facilitate discussions regarding quality matters globally.